Date: Fri 13-Sep-1996

Publication: Bee

Author: TOMW

Illustration: I

Quick Words:

Football

Full Text:

Football Preview - 1996

B Y T.W YATT

The tomahawks have been removed from their team logos and effectively replaced

with nighthawks. But that's about the only thing different in Newtown High

School football camp this fall.

Coach Bob Zito's squad, entering into its first year in the South West

Conference, is as optimistic about its season as ever before.

Last season's team finished a mere point shy of playing for a conference and

state championship when it lost 15-14 to Masuk on the last night of the

regular season. And nobody's forgotten it.

" Everybody remembers what that felt like, " Zito said, " and it was a real

good lesson for us. But it's in the past and we're shooting for the sky again,

like we do every year. We expect to be playing on Friday before Thanksgiving

and on that Tuesday after Thanksgiving. "

The Friday before Thanksgiving will be when the first SWC football

championship will be played, and the Tuesday after; the state title game.

Newtown's biggest losses to graduation include quarterback Chris Petitti,

tight end Jeremy Hayden, halfback John Buonanno, split end Paul Drap, and

linemen Kevin Walker and Tom Dyer. But a healthy and rejuvenated roster

promises to make those losses distant memories.

" We more depth on the team this year than you could believe, " said NHS

tri-captain Patrick Reilly, who was forced to miss all of last season with a

torn knee ligament. " We have great rotations, and can put equal personnel in

and out. We're not fooling around too much with fakes this year. We're going

right after it. We're bigger up front and have some power kids in the

backfield. We can hammer it right at people. "

Reilly (6-2, 192 pounds) will start two ways for the Nighthawks, at halfback

and outside linebacker, and is expected to do great things with the football

in his hands.

" Reilly is the real deal, " said NHS assistant coach, John Murphy, who will

handled the duties of offensive coordinator this fall. " He'll be fun to watch

this year, but he's not our only weapon. If you take away Reilly, that's fine,

we have five other backs who can beat you. And if you shut down the run, we'll

throw it on you. "

Lining up in the offensive backfield with Reilly will be senior fullback and

tri-captain, Matt Huray, who will also start at middle linebacker. Huray was

the team's leading rusher last season with 743 yards and eight touchdowns.

Senior Ryan Bunt (57 carries, 386 yards, 17 receptions), senior Ryan Henry

(injured last season), junior Joey Saputo (15 carries, 103 yards), and junior

Mike Reynolds will all carry the football as well.

Newtown's third captain will be senior All-WCC two-way lineman, Kevin Lausten.

Lausten (5-11, 185 pounds) will anchor the offensive line at right guard and

play outside linebacker on the opposite side of Reilly on the defensive unit.

The remainder of the offensive line will include Billy Hine (5-9, 164) at

center, Justin Gibney (6-0, 187) and Jeff Chuongvan (5-9, 195) at the other

guard spot, and Joey Wasko (6-2, 221), Andy Cozens (6-2, 210), and Curtis Gay

(6-3, 270) at tackle.

The aforementioned gentlemen will also handle the defensive line duties along

with 6-4, 225-pound Billy Henkle - who will see time at tight end on offense.

The young man responsible for making all of this go will be junior

quarterback, Pete Ivey.

The NHS staff has had its eye on Ivey since his freshman year and his time has

finally come. Will Newtown have a question mark at quarterback? " No way, "

said coach Murphy. " Pete is very good. He's the most accurate passer we've

had and he's the fastest guy on the team. If he stays healthy he'll have a

tremendous year. He makes great decisions and he's tough. "

Ivey will be airing it out with senior Danny Schneider at split end and senior

Greg Darling (6-5, 195) at tight end.

" We're very excited about this offense, " Murphy said. " I can't remember a

year when we've had this many good running backs. At the end of our scrimmages

all they guys feel kind of cheated. We're going to spread it around, but

Patrick and Matt Huray will see the ball a lot. We'll be back in our no-huddle

and I think we'll throw the ball more this year. "

After calling the offense in each of his first six years at NHS, head coach

Bob Zito will move over to the defensive side of the ball to call the shots.

" Murph's been around a while and he knows the offense inside and out, " Zito

said. " He's been calling the jayvee offense for a few years now and I have

complete confidence in him. We're both on the same page. You won't see

anything all that different, but he does like to throw the ball a bit more. "

Defensively, Zito will line up with Henckle, Chuongvan, Cozens, and Eric

Qualey rotating at defensive tackle; Darling, Gibney, Wasko, and Tucker Reed

rotating at defensive end; and tri-captains Reilly, Huray, and Lausten at the

linebacker spots with Chuongvan and Henry backing up.

The defensive backfield will consist of Bunt and Darrin Fodor on the corners

and a rotation of Saputo, Reynolds, Jeff Van Scotter, and Schneider at safety.

" We're still finding our way a little bit on defense, " Zito admitted. " We

have a new look, but we're picking it up. Once we get some of the rough edges

smoothed out, we'll be okay. We have a lot of depth on defense. We're at least

two deep all the way across the line and at linebacker, and, at D-back, we

have more flexibility as far as coverages are concerned. "

Johnny Larkins is back with the coaching staff this fall and is joined by

three new coaches. NHS wrestling coach John Zelina is working with the

linemen, along with Kevin Morey. Former NHS receiving and kicking star, David

Payne is in as the team's receivers coach.

" We've got a lot of eyes out there and there's a lot of teaching going on, "

Zito said. " I feel like we're rejuvenated this season. There's a new

enthusiasm. This is one of the deepest teams I've had since I've been here. We

can do a lot of things. We can slug it out with people if we have to or

finesse people if we have to. It's going to be a fun year. "

Newtown starts out with a tough out-of-conference matchup with Staples of

Westport and will see some of its biggest challenges in weeks three and four

against Brookfield on September 28 in its home opener, and at Stratford on

October 5.

With the beginning of the new South West Football Conference comes a new

scheduling format. The conference finals will be played on Friday, November

22, with conference rivalries being set up for Thanksgiving Day. Newtown will

host Masuk on Thanksgiving Day in a game that will not count towards a

conference record but will count towards state tournament points.